Cabin side painted and a surprise move.

 Well we did it.  Never painted cabin sides outdoors before, but we're happy with the outcome.

Of course it's only the two large dark grey panels on one side of the boat but it's a start.  A bit brush marky, but from experience that tens top flatten back a bit as the paint cures. All did not go smoothly however.  As we were masking over the coachline we ran out of masking tape with more than half of it left to put on.  In a bit of a panic (we had to get the painting done before the day got too hot) I jumped on my bike and pedalled round to the marina's dry dock to beg for some tape.  The nice man there gave me a reel which sort of saved the day.  I say sort of because it wasn't as sharp edged as the better stuff we used the day before and it was a bit too tacky. So when we pulled it off after finishing painting the edges were not as sharp and here and there a bit of the coachline paint came off.  Not a major problem, I think we can fix that later.

The painting of course was a lot less exhausting then the prep.  I rollered the paint on and Kath followed immediately behind laying off with a brush. Anyway, there it is, and there's lots more to do on other days.

Speaking of which, we asked about temporarily using another pontoon in the marina when we come to doing the other side of the boat, which is inaccessible in our current berth.  That was OK they said and pointed to a nearby slot we could 'borrow' when the time came.  Then overnight it occurred to us that this other pontoon was vacant and it was a bit nicer than our current one, so in the mooring I asked if we could transfer there permanently and the answer was yes, but not immediately.  So sometime in the next month or so we'll move about 25 yards to a new somewhat more attractive berth.  I must say, the staff at Cropredy are always very helpful and cheerful and friendly with it.

Speaking of bikes (see tape dash above), we're getting on well with our pair of Bromptons.  I like the way you can fold the back wheel under to stand it up. They do take up a bit of space on the boat but not un-managebly so. I don't think there is any other bike that folds up so small.

 I cycled up to the village the other day, and it's a fairly steep hill but I managed it ok -just.  Someone younger and fitter would have been up there like a rocket.  On the downside, I tried it out on a narrow and very pot-holey bumpy bit of towpath in Banbury last week and it was a bit scary being only a foot from the canal edge.  I'll stick to better towpath in future.

Today we're in Cambridge getting more acquainted with our kitten before we take him/her (we're still not very sure which) home in a couple of weeks.  More on that later.